In the games

Silver first appears in the Generation II games, lurking outside of Professor Elm's lab, looking through the window. When talked to, he will deny everything and push the player away. During the player's journey to Mr. Pokémon's house, Silver makes his move, stealing one of Elm's two remaining starter Pokémon (coincidentally always the one that is strong against the player's choice). He will meet with the player on the outskirts of Cherrygrove City, battling to get through. A policeman will later ask for the name of the rival, and the rival will be called the name the player gives for the rest of the game.

Silver shows a strong dislike of Team Rocket. He considers them to be weak, and vows to take them, as well as any other weak Trainer, down. He steals a Sneasel from a Trainer in Cianwood City and while Ethan/Kris/Lyra attempts to take down Team Rocket in Mahogany Town and Goldenrod City, he interferes to prove himself. It is in the Mahogany hideout that he meets with Lance, Champion of the Elite Four at the Indigo Plateau. Silver challenges Lance and is easily defeated by the dragon trainer, who then proceeds to berate Silver for his callous ways towards training Pokémon. Though Silver is outraged for losing to someone with such an attitude, the loss and Lance's words ultimately set him on the path to becoming a better person. When Team Rocket takes over the Goldenrod Radio Tower, Silver first blows the player's Team Rocket disguise, unaware of the player's plan to sneak in by pretending to be a member of Team Rocket. He later follows the player to the Goldenrod underground and they battle Team Rocket, hoping that Lance will reappear and he can request a rematch.

By the time the player reaches the Indigo Plateau, Silver battles against the player not out of malice, but to prove that he is a good Trainer. He is defeated and departs to continue training. The player battles Silver on Mt. Moon, and though he loses he claims he can feel his Pokémon getting stronger, and resolves to train at Dragon's Den. When battled the seventh time at Indigo Plateau, Silver seems to have finally learned to care for his Pokémon properly, as his Golbat has evolved to Crobat, which only occurs when Golbat is very happy. This is further expressed in Generation IV when his starter Pokémon starts to follow him around, much like the player's Pokémon; Professor Elm even expressly states that Silver's Pokémon have come to trust him when Silver returns to the lab, presumably to return the starter he stole.

Following Silver's final encounter with the player and after the player has become Champion, Silver can be found training on Tuesday and Thursday in the Dragon's Den, where he cannot be battled, and will appear at the Indigo Plateau on Monday and Wednesday to challenge the player to a battle, should he or she appear. He does not appear at all on the weekends, indicating that he may in fact take the day off, resting his Pokémon. In Pokémon HeartGold and SoulSilver, Lance and Clair will appear in the Dragon's Den and challenge the player and Silver to a tag battle following the battle at Mt. Moon.

In terms of personality, Silver is the darkest of the rivals in the series. While most other rivals are generally good-natured, or at least zestful enough to crack a joke at the player, Silver is (at first) cruel, hateful, power-obsessed and even physically abusive, pushing the player character around several times. Even after he starts to become kinder, he remains a rather serious individual. He does, however, express genuine happiness when Elm allows him to keep the Pokémon he stole.

Giovanni and Silver's relationship is revealed in HeartGold and SoulSilver when a fateful encounterCelebi is brought to Ilex Shrine. Celebi takes the player back in time three years to witness Giovanni abandoning Silver to go into seclusion because of his defeat at the hands of Red. Silver's hate for Team Rocket apparently stems from the failure of his father.

Pokémon

The starter Pokémon that Silver has will depend on which Pokémon the player chose to bring on Professor Elm's errand at the beginning of the game. As with most rivals, it will be the Pokémon whose type weakens that of the player's starter.

While not appearing directly, he has a counterpart in the Pokémon Adventures manga, Template:Adv. They share several similarities, such as stealing a starter from Professor Elm (in the manga's case, Totodile), owning a Sneasel, and being Giovanni's son.

Trivia

Concept art depicting Silver

A 1997 pamphlet describing Template:2v2 mentions that the rival character lives in the same town as Template:Ga. This aspect of his character was apparently discarded by the time of the final release, as his hometown was not elaborated upon in the games and it is implied to not be New Bark Town since he seems unfamiliar with Professor Elm's lab at the beginning of the game.

In Generation IV, Silver is depicted with two different eye colors. His eyes are gray in his Generation IV artwork while they are red inside the HeartGold and SoulSilver games, as seen in the opening animation.

In the original Gold, Silver, and Crystal games, when battled at the Indigo Plateau the Champion theme is played instead of his rival theme.

The English script of the Celebi event in HeartGold and SoulSilver never states that Silver is Giovanni's son, unlike the Japanese script.

Silver has achieved a high score of 2000 at Pal Park, which serves as the default high score.

Names

Silver is almost universally used in the fandom as the official name for this character, since it is his default name (the name the game chooses when the player doesn't enter a name of his own) in Template:Game3 and Template:Game3, and is also his name in placeholder data in Template:2v2. However, his default name differs on other games, and he's also named Gold (in Silver), Soul (in HeartGold), and Heart (in SoulSilver). Of course, he can be called almost anything, since his name is chosen by the player.